Lydia Loveless: 5 Albums That Changed My Life

The Ohio native grew up on a steady diet of country (her dad owned a country music bar) mixed with a hearty shot of punk, melding all those influences into her own distinctive sound: somewhere in between Loretta Lynn and the Replacements. She also covered the aforementioned Bieber’s hit song “Sorry,” so you can through some pop in there, too.

Loveless’ last LP, Real, dropped last year, but you can catch her on the road for select fest dates this summer. While we eagerly anticipate her next album, catch up with Loveless below and learn a little about some records that altered her life.

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The Strokes, Is This It

I think I was twelve or thirteen when that record came out, so an impressionable age. I was pretty into some crappy music, which we’ll get into later. Lot’s of pop punk and stuff. But that just seemed so similar to what my parents listened to. My mom loved the Velvet Underground, so it was something new and updated.

I guess that’s kind of a clichéd record for my age group to pick, but I just remember hearing ‘The Modern Age’ for the first time and crying on my bedroom floor definitely feeling like I discovered something really beautiful.

This one is funny for me because as a kid my sister was obsessed with the band Savage Garden [which Hayes was in] and I would relentlessly make fun of her and give her so much shit for it. That was probably a defense mechanism now that I think about it, because I didn’t want to like anything that she liked.

I just remember she was listening to this record and it was so heartbreaking — amazing pop music. It definitely led me back to my terrible pop roots. For a long time I was like, ‘I don’t listen to that crap anymore!’ That record definitely sucked me back in and lyrically I just think it’s genius.

I think I discovered this one through my terrible, stupid boyfriend at the time. Definitely hearing that, it changed me a lot musically — because at that point in my life I wanted to be a songwriter but I didn’t know what I was doing, because I was a stupid kid and I didn’t really know how to put music to what I was feeling. I remember hearing that and something really clicking for me — how perfect it is to put your stories to country music.

WhenI was super little and discovered Billy Idol, I thought he was the coolest thing ever. I thought no one knew who he was except me, which is funny to think about now. I remember the first time I heard him I got so amped up about it that I went to the bathroom and colored my hair with magic marker; I thought I was super cool. I got that record when I was thirteen. I guess you could call Billy Idol a punk in some way. I just thought he was super hilarious and ridiculous in his own way cool.

I remember a specific show where me and my sister just saw them opening for Good Charlotte, because I was so cool. We were like, ‘This is what we have to do with our lives.’ After we saw Something Corporate, it changed our lives. We bought all their records — super big nerds. That record definitely has a special place in my heart —and that genre is now kind of becoming acceptable. So it’s kind of OK. For years I was so secretive about it, but now there are all these great bands that are kind of doing similar emo-ish, pop-ish stuff.